"Hey, Sasuke?"
Sasuke glanced over at Naruto. "Yes?"
They were waiting for Kakashi, who was two hours late for training. Ten minutes ago, Sakura—who had been whining about how she missed breakfast to be there on time—had flounced off to get something to eat. Naruto knew he was supposed to have a crush on Sakura, but he couldn't help being glad she was gone—at least for the moment—leaving him and Sasuke alone.
"I was just wondering…" Something had just occurred to him, and he had to ask Sasuke about it. "Do you ever smile?"
"What?" Sasuke said, looking startled by the question.
"You always look either bored or annoyed or angry," Naruto explained. "I've never seen you look happy. So I was wondering if you ever smile."
"I smile when I have a good reason to," Sasuke muttered.
"I think you're too uptight about it. Lots of things make me smile! Like ramen, and bright colors, and fuzzy animals, and birds, and the sun, and clouds, and rain, and dessert, and when w—" He broke off, feeling his cheeks turn pink. For some reason, he'd been about to say, when we're together like this, but he had no idea where that even came from. It was stupid.
"Anyway," he continued after a pause, "you never seem to notice any of that stuff. So what do you think is a good reason to smile? You've got to have something!"
"Naruto, how much sugar did you have today?"
"Not much! Just three bars of chocolate—no, wait, four—and I found a couple of those sugar packets you get from restaurants, so I ate those. And a bag of mini marshmallows! I love those!" Naruto frowned. "Wait…what does that have to do with anything? You didn't answer my question!"
Sasuke shrugged unhelpfully and looked away again.
"Well, I think it's sad when people never smile. Smiling is a good thing! So guess what?"
Sasuke wasn't looking at him, so Naruto scooted over to him and stuck his face in Sasuke's. Sasuke's eyes widened a little, but he just stared back at Naruto. Naruto—who had never really looked into Sasuke's eyes before, or been this close to him on purpose—felt his heart skip a beat and momentarily lost his train of thought.
"Sasuke," he said, after a moment, "I am going to get you to smile."
He sat back on his heels and tried to think of something amusing to do. Sasuke looked like he thought Naruto was insane, but that was okay. Naruto knew he'd be able to make him smile.
"I know!" he exclaimed. "I'll tell you a joke! I know a really good one! Why did the ghost haunt the toilet?"
Sasuke didn't reply.
"Come on! Just guess!"
Sasuke still didn't reply.
"Okay, fine, I'll tell you. Because he had some unfinished business!"
Naruto fell over laughing. Sasuke didn't.
"You're being so boring," Naruto complained, when he'd managed to calm down and sit up again. "Let's try again. Knock, knock." He waited. "Sasuke! You're supposed to say, 'Who's there?' "
"Yes," Sasuke said, "I understand how knock-knock jokes work." He sounded utterly bored, but at least he'd said something.
"Say it!"
After a long pause, Sasuke sighed. "Fine. Who's there?"
"Boo!"
Looking as if the words were causing him intense pain, Sasuke said, "Boo who?"
"You don't have to cry, Sasuke! My jokes aren't that bad!"
"Yes, they are," Sasuke muttered as Naruto went into hysterics again.
"Well, jokes aren't working." Naruto sighed. He didn't understand why Sasuke wasn't laughing. "Guess I'll have to try something else. Funny faces!"
He stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes. He stretched his cheeks out. He tried to touch his bottom lip to his nose.
"You look like an idiot," Sasuke informed him.
"That's not working either. Okay, we're trying something new. Get up."
Naruto pulled on Sasuke's arm, and he reluctantly stood. "What now?"
"We're going to skip!"
Sasuke's eyes widened. "Oh, no."
"Oh, yes." Naruto grinned. "Everyone loves skipping!"
"I don't."
"Yes, you do!" Naruto hooked his arm through Sasuke's and started skipping around. This had to make Sasuke smile! "Isn't this fun?"
Sasuke, who was getting dragged around, suddenly locked his knees, making them both fall over.
"Hey!" Naruto said accusingly. "You did that on pur…"
He suddenly realized the position they were in—Sasuke was flat on his back, and Naruto was half on top of him—and promptly forgot what he was saying.
"Are you ever going to smile?" he finally managed. He figured he should probably get up, but he didn't particularly want to.
"I told you before," Sasuke said. His voice was cold, but slightly breathless, and his cheeks had flushed pink—Naruto wasn't sure, but it looked like he was actually blushing. "I smile when I have a good reason to."
"But you wouldn't tell me what you thought was a good reason to smile was! Do you even think there are any? Or do you just go around frowning all the time because you never think you have a good enough reason to smile?"
"There are good reasons," Sasuke said defensively.
"Like what?"
"Like this," Sasuke said, and suddenly he was kissing Naruto and Naruto was kissing him back.
And when they broke apart, Sasuke was smiling.